Ohio Scientists Pushing Blue-Blocking Glasses, Lights to Improve Sleep

products available via the web site: www.lowbluelights.com Nov. 13, 2007 – As for many other senior citizens, reports about improving the ability to sleep grabs my attention. Researchers at the Lighting Innovations Institute at John Carroll University say they have developed eye glasses and other lights that manipulate a person's circadian rhythm, which can improve sleep patterns among people who have difficulty falling asleep. Circadian rhythm is the 24-hour internal clock determining the sleeping and feeding patterns of all animals, including human beings.

(Read more about the circadian rhythm below this news report.)

The researchers have created glasses designed to block blue light, therefore altering a person’s circadian rhythm, which leads to improvement in sleep disorders and Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms, they report.

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Dr. Richard Hansler is the lead John Carroll researcher in the development and uses for the blue-blocking glasses and also one of the principle owners of a company that makes these new products available via the web site: www.lowbluelights.com. The Website makes this promise, "If wearing our glasses does not improve your sleep, return them within 30 days and we will refund your money."

How the Glasses Work: Jumpstarting Melatonin Production

The individual puts on the glasses a couple of hours ahead of bedtime, advancing the circadian rhythm. The special glasses block the blue rays that cause a delay in the start of the flow of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Normally, melatonin flow doesn’t begin until after the individual goes into darkness.

Studies indicate that promoting the earlier release of melatonin results in a marked decline of ADHD symptoms, says the news release from the university.

Alternative Uses: Better Sleep/Disease Prevention/Depression Relief

Major uses of the blue-blocking glasses include: providing better sleep, avoiding postpartum depression, preventing Seasonal Affective Disorder and reducing the risk of cancer.

An alternative to the glasses has also been developed in the form of night lights and light bulbs with coatings that block the blue light. Instead of wearing the glasses, an individual may simply turn off ordinary lights and, instead, turn on the ones with filters that remove the blue rays. The night light is a convenient “plug-in” device. The cost of the items ranges from approximately $5 for light bulbs and night lights to $40-$60 for glasses.

Editor's Notes:

SeniorJournal.com is presenting this information as news and has received no compensation from John Carroll or LowBlueLights.com.

The John Carroll researchers note that advancing the circadian rhythm has been shown to improve both objective and subjective measures of ADHD symptoms in studies at the University of Toronto. Twenty-nine adults diagnosed with ADHD participated in a three-week trial.

John Carroll University, located in Cleveland, Ohio, is a liberal arts university grounded in the Jesuit, Catholic tradition. The university has more than 3,000 undergraduates and nearly 700 graduate students. The U.S. News & World Report’s 2008 annual college guide ranks the master’s degree program at John Carroll University among the top 10 universities across the Midwest. The university is ranked 13th in the “Great Schools, Great Prices” category which compares academic excellence with cost. Originally founded as St. Ignatius College in 1886, the university was renamed in 1923 to honor America’s first Catholic bishop, John Carroll of Maryland. John Carroll is one of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities located in the United States. John Carroll University

About Circadian Rhythm

Excerpts from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Circadian rhythm, (Click here for more & updates) (last visited Nov. 13, 2007).

A circadian rhythm is a roughly-24-hour cycle in the physiological processes of living beings, including plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria. The term "circadian", coined by Franz Halberg, comes from the Latin circa, "around", and diem or dies, "day", meaning literally "about a day."

In a strict sense, circadian rhythms are endogenously (from within) generated, although they can be modulated by external cues, primarily daylight.

Circadian rhythms are believed to have originated in the earliest cells, with the purpose of protecting replicating DNA from high ultraviolet radiation during the daytime. As a result, replication was relegated to the dark.

We now know that the molecular circadian clock can function within a single cell - i.e. it is cell autonomous. At the same time, different cells may communicate with each other resulting in a synchronized output of electrical signaling. These may interface with endocrine glands of the brain to result in periodic release of hormones. The receptors for these hormones may be located far across the body and sychronize the peripheral clocks of various organs.

Thus, the information of the time of the day as determined by the eyes may travel to the clock in the brain and through that, clocks in the rest of the body may be synchronized. This is how the timing of, for example, sleep/wake, body temperature, thirst and appetite are coordinately controlled by the biological clock.

Animal circadian rhythms

Circadian rhythms are important in determining the sleeping and feeding patterns of all animals, including human beings. There are clear patterns of core body temperature, brain wave activity, hormone production, cell regeneration and other biological activities linked to this daily cycle.

There are many health problems associated with a disturbance in the human circadian rhythm, such as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS).[2] Circadian rhythms also play a part in the reticular activating system.

Impact of light-dark cycle

The rhythm is linked to the light-dark cycle. Animals kept in total darkness for extended periods eventually function with a "free-running" rhythm. Each "day," their sleep cycle is pushed back or forward (depending on whether the endogenous period is longer or shorter than 24 hours).

The environmental cues that each day reset the rhythms are called Zeitgebers (German, literally "Time Givers"). Interestingly, totally blind subterranean mammals (e.g., blind mole rat Spalax sp.) are able to maintain their endogenous clock in absence of the external stimuli.

Free running organisms still have a consolidated sleep-wake cycle when in an environment shielded from external cues, but the rhythm is not entrained and may become out of phase with other circadian or ultradian rhythms such as temperature and digestion.

This research has influenced the design of spacecraft environments, as systems that mimic the light/dark cycle have been found to be highly beneficial to astronauts.

Light and the biological clock

Light resets the biological clock in accordance with the phase response curve (PRC). Depending on the timing, light can advance or delay the circadian rhythm. Both the PRC and the required illuminance vary from species to species; much lower light levels are required to reset the clocks in nocturnal rodents than in humans.

In addition to light intensity, wavelength (or color) of light is an important factor in the degree to which the clock is reset. Melanopsin is most efficiently excited by blue light (420-440 nm).

By depriving people of daylight and other external time cues, scientists have learned that most people's biological clocks work on a 25-hour cycle when subjects are allowed to use electric light at will.

But because daylight or other lighting can reset circadian rhythms, our biological cycles normally follow the 24-hour cycle of the earth's rotation, rather than our innate cycle which averages 24 hours and 11 minutes for adults. Circadian rhythms can be affected to some degree by almost any kind of external time cue, such as the beeping of an alarm clock, the clatter of a garbage truck, or the timing of meals. Scientists call external time cues zeitgebers (German for "time givers").

Circadian rhythm sleep disorder

Excerpts from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Circadian rhythm sleep disorder, (Click here) (last visited Nov. 13, 2007).
(Redirected from Circadian rhythm sleep disorders)

Circadian rhythm sleep disorders are a family of sleep disorders affecting the timing of sleep. People with circadian rhythm sleep disorders are unable to sleep and wake at the times required for normal work, school, and social needs. They are generally able to get enough sleep if allowed to sleep and wake at the times dictated by their body clocks. Unless they have another sleep disorder, their sleep is of normal quality.

Humans have biological rhythms, known as circadian rhythms, which are controlled by a biological clock and work on a daily time scale. Due to the circadian clock, sleepiness does not continuously increase as time passes. A person's desire and ability to fall asleep is influenced by both the length of time since the person woke from an adequate sleep, and by internal circadian rhythms. Thus, the body is ready for sleep and for wakefulness at different times of the day.

Normal circadian rhythms

Among people with healthy circadian clocks, there is a continuum of chronotypes from "larks" or "morning people" who prefer to sleep and wake early, to "owls" who prefer to sleep and wake at late times. Whether they are larks or owls, people with normal circadian systems:

● can wake in time for what they need to do in the morning, and fall asleep at night in time to get enough sleep before having to get up.

● can sleep and wake up at the same time every day, if they want to.

● will, after starting a new routine which requires they get up earlier than usual, start to fall asleep at night earlier within a few days. For example, someone who is used to sleeping at 1 am and waking up at 9 a.m. begins a new job on a Monday, and must get up at 6 a.m. to get ready for work. By the following Friday, the person has begun to fall asleep at around 10 p.m., and can wake up at 6 a.m. feeling well-rested.

This adaptation to earlier sleep/wake times is known as "advancing the sleep phase." Healthy people can advance their sleep phase by about one hour each day.

Researchers have placed volunteers in caves or special apartments for several weeks without clocks or other time cues. Without time cues, the volunteers tended to go to bed an hour later and to get up about an hour later each day.

These experiments appeared to demonstrate that the "free-running" circadian rhythm in humans was about 25 hours long. However, these volunteers were allowed to control artificial lighting and the light in the evening caused a phase delay.

More recent research shows that adults of all ages free-run at an average of 24 hours and 11 minutes. To maintain a 24 hour day/night cycle, the biological clock needs regular environmental time cues, e.g. sunrise, sunset, and daily routine.

Time cues keep the normal human circadian clock aligned with the rest of the world.[